Patriots rule the roost of TV ratings once again heading into 2013

FOXBORO — Reflecting another year of high hopes and expectations from their fan base, the Patriots are again winners in the preseason TV ratings.

The Patriots’ 28-20 win over the New York Giants at Gillette Stadium in the preseason finale Thursday night was reflected in the local ratings yet again. The WBZ-TV Channel 4 local broadcast was the most watched telecast for the fourth consecutive week.

New England’s Aug. 30 preseason finale, which marked the final installment of WBZ’s new broadcasting format, garnered a 14.6 household rating with an average of 435,000 total viewers, placing it at the top of the local rankings through Thursday for the week of Aug. 26. The program peaked with a household rating of 16.6 and 499,200 total viewers.

Viewers tuned in to Patriots broadcasts with consistent frequency this preseason, as all four preseason broadcasts finished comfortably as the top-ranked local program of their respective weeks. The three local WBZ broadcasts and one national broadcast on FOX all garnered average household ratings of 14.4 or higher as well as a total viewership of 435,000 or higher.

With the preseason officially in the books, the Patriots will travel to Buffalo to kick off the 2013 regular season against the Bills at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8. CBS will broadcast the game to a regional audience, with Greg Gumbel on play-by-play duties and Dan Dierdorf providing game analysis. Patriots fans in Boston can tune in to WBZ-TV to catch the action.

Thursday night’s Patriots-Giants preseason finale took home the top ranking this week with a 14.6 household rating, but it wasn’t the only Patriots broadcast that impressed in the ratings. WBZ-TV’s ‘Patriots 5th Quarter’ postgame show earned a 7.3 rating to move ahead of ‘America’s Got Talent,’ while WBZ-TV’s pregame show, ‘Patriots All Access,’ also cracked the top 10 with a 3.9 household rating.